1. Field of the Invention
On a daily basis, practically every business entity generates documents containing proprietary and confidential business information. Waste disposal of such documents through conventional means, such as simply throwing the documents in waste baskets, is undesireable, and indeed is not a good business practice. Competitors have been known to search through the waste discarded by their rivals in an unsophisticated form of industrial espionage. Other companies have obligations to their customers and clients to treat certain information in confidence. Again, the conventional means of disposal of documents containing such information is unsatisfactory.
Paper shredders are commercially available and are designed to meet the need for confidential document disposal. The function of the shredders is to tear the confidential documents into unrecognizable pieces, the disposal of which is then accomplished in conventional fashion. However, the mass of shredded paper thus produced is bulky and difficult to handle. Services are available that will contract to perform both the shredding and disposal functions. These services can be quite expensive.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an effort to deal with these various problems, machines which perform the dual functions of document destruction and compacting have been developed. Such apparatus is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,882,770, 3,754,498, 3,752,063 and 2,691,338. These devices include a cutting means to shred the paper. After the paper has been shredded, a device comprising a ram is actuated to compact the shredded waste into disposable bales. Since the shredding and baling operations are sequential, the overall waste processing time is extended.